


Fantasy Affairs

by UltraRed



Category: Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Character, Asexual Confusion, Asexuality Spectrum, Dating, Eventual kissing, Fluff, M/M, Other, Pining, Slow Romance, Swearing, as canon compliant as I can be, because I've yet to listen to all of FHSY, demiromantic riz, yogurt related violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27642670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltraRed/pseuds/UltraRed
Summary: Dating was hard, and doubly hard when you didn't even know what you wanted from it, if you even wanted it at all. Riz Gukgak kind of stumbles into the scene when his best friend of three years falls for him, and things just get more confusing from there on out.
Relationships: Riz Gukgak/Fabian Aramais Seacaster
Comments: 30
Kudos: 102





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! As an asexual demiromantic myself I got super inspired by this ship and wrote up a storm after listening to the first part of Fantasy High. I might make things more canon compliant as I listen to more, or I might not. It's a mystery. 
> 
> The title is a refenrence to the soap opera Family Affairs because I thought some sort of soap opera reference would be fitting. 
> 
> This has not been properly edited or beta read, but please enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now just a bit edited!

As a liscenced P.I., it came with the occupation that Riz wasn't _completely_ oblivious to his surroundings, but admittedly, it’d taken him far longer than it should've to realize that Fabian Aramais Seacaster, his best friend of three years, had other than purely platonic feelings towards him.

It'd been small things that clued him in, like the fact they always had to be close-by to each other if the Bad Kids were all hanging out together, or how utterly determined Fabian'd gotten about getting him to ride with him on the Hangman (despite the motorcycles protests) every time they went somewhere, asking him to put him arms around him for safety and how his whole body tensed at Riz's touch afterwards, how he'd catch him staring from across the bloodrush field, his one eye burning with unspoken feelings...

It also helped that Fabian never really dated anyone, which had only made sense if he was like Riz (which Riz didn't get the vibe he was, to be perfectly frank) and not interested in dating or if he was super interested in dating someone in particular, which, in a twist of fate, turned out to be him. Fabian turning down the hottest people they ran across in parties or at school, just because of a goblin like him, and Riz couldn't lie. All of this? It gave him a thrill. Being desired was fun, even thought at the same time it was confusing as all fuck.

Sometimes he wanted to shake Fabian and ask him what was so special about him, what made him tick and think the things he thought about Riz, well, whatever he thought about Riz. If his obsession with Aelwyn was anything to go by, it was all kissing, which Riz couldn’t even imagine. What was kissing like, even? The little peck Kristine had given was no indicator, and he wasn’t interested enough to try it out further. From what he recalled it’d felt a bit wet, soft and chapped. Nothing special, not really.

Anyway, kissing aside, he far more liked the fact that Fabian gave him constant attention. Like now, in their like, one thousandth message of the day, Fabian sent a group crystal saying HE’S GOING TO THEIR SENIOR PROM WITH THE ELVEN SOPHOMORE FLALADRIEL FUCKING EVERMOON?! Because she asked him?! And he said yes?!

Riz couldn’t help his immediate reply of ”WHAT????,” as he apparently typed faster than he thought. It was glaringly obvious among the many ”gratz” and ”me and Thacker are going even though Thacker doesn’t go to our school”.

He felt like he’d been punched in the gut, and he tried to analyze the feelings he had but it was all static. It was so unfamiliar to him that he just, didn’t know what to do with the swelling, rotten _thing_ in his gut. It was like nausea, but for his emotions. He threw his crystal away onto his work table, before he could reply with something more incriminating, like he wasn’t the most supportive and best best friend ever. He looked at the clock on the wall, and shit, they were supposed to meet at Basrar’s in 45 minutes for Friday night ice creams.

What face was he supposed to make? Obviously he wasn’t too happy about this, but even he himself didn’t know why. It felt like he’d believed a lie for the past few months, like he’d gotten conceited in thinking the coolest person he knew was somehow into him. This was the world’s way to say fuck you. You, Riz Gukgak, do not get what you want.

What did he want? Fuck if he knew. These were his first age appropriate friends, what if he’d fucked it all up by thinking Fabian could be into him? What if they had a second crystal group chat in which they were laughing at him _right now_? What if Fabian was disgusted with him?

Okay, that was ridiculous, even for his spiraling thoughts. He laughed a little, and felt a bit better, even thought the bubble of bad in his stomach was clinging on. He wondered if he should cancel, but decided against it. It was far more suspicious not to attend, say, family dinner after cheating on your partner, he knew this much from his work.

He picked up his phone, and no one had paid any attention to his little stunt. Maybe they’d thought it was positive, as in ”what bro that is sick bro”, and not ”what in the world is going on”, which it had definitely been. Talk had shifted to convincing Kristen that she could go in a tux and no one could tell her no, and no comment on the weird little goblin being a weirdo, thank every god he knew of for that. He felt a weight lift off of his shoulders, but then it came back tenfold when he got a private crystal from Fabian, ”pick you up in 10 The Ball”.

Oh right. Their thing they did, in which they went everywhere together and were everywhere together. What about prom, was he supposed to awkwardly stick to Fabian and his date’s side like some sort of third wheel? Or, well, in his case he supposed he was the third ball, he thought bleakly. At least he was small enough to fit on the Hangman with them, he supposed.

He kind of regretted not having mirrors in his office any more, because he wanted to see what he looked like. Probably like shit, he’d had three pots of coffee and had been trying to work on a case since 4 am, and since he didn’t have classes today, he hadn’t even left the office and had been here, stinking the place up for almost twelve hours. He looked guiltily at the take-out boxes in the overly full trash can, his messy workspace and conspiracy wall full of red string. This was probably why Fabian didn’t actually like him, he was a greasy little goblin with little to no self respect who did gross things like dive inside the buttholes of corn monsters on the first day of knowing people.

Still, he supposed he had to try to not be that guy. He went to the bathroom sink and splashed some water onto his face, trying to brighten up before Fabian got here, and to stop the ever growing dread about how what he’d thought to be true had been wrong all along. It was honestly also a blow to his P.I. self. Being self absorbed and conceited gets you no where in this line of work, that’s why he’d always thought that his work oriented attitude and lack of interest in normal teen things like sex and romance had always been a good thing, since it meant his head had more real estate free for solving crimes. That’s why he’d become the youngest P.I. in Elmville, yet he’d let himself be blown away by the mere thought ”what if a boy doesn’t like me?".

Pathetic.

He reached for a towel and heard the front door click open, and oh right, he’d given all his friends keys here. He wished he hadn’t done that now.

”The Ball?” Fabian called out to him, and Riz grimaced. He’d kinda hoped it was his mom, but she had date night tonight so it could’ve only been Fabian in any case.

”Just a sec,” he yelled back, scrubbing his face furiously, ”I’m coming!”

He just threw the towel on the floor, as it needed to be washed in any case, and exited the bathroom, and yup, there, leaning against the door to his office like a homme fatale from a cheesy noir drama was his best friend, who, he needed to remind himself, did not have a crush on him.

”Sup,” Riz said, nodding, in an attempt to be cool and casual, and wiped a run away drop of water from his chin. He turned his attention to the coat rack next to Fabian and ran both hands through his hair, which had also gotten a bit damp, in a vain attempt to not look like a complete slob, but also so that he didn’t have to look directly at Fabian.

”’Sup’ to you too, The Ball,” Fabian replied, and yup, this was gonna be so fucking awkward, wasn’t it? It felt like usually they’d be talking up a storm by now, but they weren’t so Riz just buttoned up his shirt. He went to grab his coat and hat, only to realize that in the morning he’d taken the really expensive white hoodie Fabian had bought for himself and given to Riz, as what Riz thought was an attempt at a subtle gift, but now that was probably nothing too. It was a day he’d dragged Riz along for some shopping, probably just to show off rich kid stores which had t-shirts that cost more than half a year’s rent at the apartments, and hey, what if Fabian got the white hoodie and oops, he had gotten a red one before, so Riz should have the white one. Hilarious. Flattering. A complete misunderstanding.

He still pulled the hoodie on, since he’d get super cold on the Hangman if he didn’t have proper clothes on, and it was really soft even though he’d had it for a month, since Fabian also insisted on bringing it to a dry cleaner his family used (”If you wash it at home it’ll get absolutely dreadful in no time, trust me, The Ball”). Finally he put his hat into his pocket, since he’d lost two hats to the Hangman’s speed already, and looked up at Fabian, who’d not budged from his spot at the door. Their eyes met and hoo boy, Riz was not ready for this at all. He quickly averted his gaze and pushed past Fabian, who let him, opening the door.

”Are we going or not?” He asked, and Fabian shrugged, shoving his hands into the pockets of his letterman jacket.

”Yes we are,” came Fabian’s short reply, and after Riz locked the door they walked in silence to the Hangman, which somehow managed to rumble in a disgruntled manner as always when Riz approached with his _sireee_. He waited for Fabian to mount it before following suit, but that posed a new dilemma; should he grab Fabian’s torso like he literally always did because Fabian had always insisted on it for actual safety purposes or should he grab the bars behind himself and call it a day?

Apparently he’d pondered for too long, because Fabian twisted his body around and huffed in an all together impatient manner, saying, ”Really now The Ball, this can’t be so hard every single time,” and grabbed Riz’s arms and turned back to face the front, pulling them around himself while he did so. Riz was helpless to resist, really, and just grabbed on, pressing his face against Fabian’s lower back, and he felt it vibrate as Fabian laughed, just a bit, at his victory.  
  
”There we go,” he said, sounding satisfied with the situation, maybe even a bit smug, and the Hangman revved up and they sped off into the evening, the setting sun coloring the world in a warm red, making it seem like just for this ride, everything was okay between the two of them. Riz let himself relax for what felt like the first time this whole day, just listening to the wind and roar of the infernal engine at the Hangman’s core.

And they were not going to Basrar’s. They’d taken the wrong turn twice now. He realized this with a start, and he got up from his way too relaxed pose to be in on top of a motorcycle, sitting up straight.

”Fabian,” he shouted, trying to be heard over all the noise, ”Fabian where are we going?”

And Fabian turned to face him, and the smirk he had on his lips had so much of Bill Seacaster in it, Riz was afraid he’d been possessed by his father, but realized it was just absurd. Fabian was just like that sometimes.

”We’re just taking a slight detour, nothing to worry about,” Fabian yelled in reply, facing forward again, and Riz was about to break out in cold sweat, because this was exactly the moment you should be worried. He was about to protest, but all he could do was hang on tight for his dear life as the Hangman sped up past the speed limit. They really had to get helmets in the future.

They drove towards their mystery location for at least ten more minutes, and it gave Riz ample time to catastrophize about what was going on in the meantime. Was this an elaborate plot to humiliate him? Get revenge on him for daring to think Fabian liked him? Would Falafel or whatever her name was be there? Would he get kicked out of their friend group? Was this it? Would family dinner with Fig be cancelled? What if what if what if, tens of different awful things filled his head, and he closed his eyes tight, trying to will them away, but to no avail.

And then, they slowed down, and came to a stop. Riz dared to open his eyes, and they were… In a park? Alone? He raked his brain for a location, and it was probably a park around Downtown, due to the fact that the river that ran through Elmville was close-by. He stared at the trees and the grass and everything, dumbfounded, and realized that none of his fears had come true. They were completely alone, and Riz just couldn’t figure out why.

”Come on The Ball,” Fabian said, getting off the Hangman, and then in a surprising move lifting him off of it as well, ”I know a spot.”

”Uh, sure,” Riz said, masking the fact that being lifted had left him a bit flustered by putting his hat on, and followed Fabian along a path, then through some bushes until finally they reached a park bench, located right at the bank of the river. It looked like it’d been dragged here from somewhere else quite some time ago, and had probably just been forgotten there. Fabian sat down on it, and patted the spot next to him.

”Well,” he said, crossing his legs, impatient again, and as if this was the Seacaster Manor and he was waiting on him as a guest, he continued with a, ”Do sit down!”

But Riz didn’t budge from where he stood.

”Yeah, um, how about you explain what’s going on first?” Riz asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn’t going to be lead around like this any more, but that sentiment was quickly forgotten when Fabian sighed, climbed onto the bench and basically crawled towards Riz, taking hold of one of his arms and pulling him to bench. Riz felt like he had no choice now, and he reluctantly climbed up and sat down, just so that this weirdness would stop. Thankfully Fabian sat down too, but in a move that would’ve made Riz doubt his intentions before, he didn’t let go of his arm.

”Okay, now?” Riz pushed further and looked up to face Fabian, a bit annoyed, but that’s when he noticed that he was… He was nervous? And even with the darkness that was setting over messing with his color vision he could see that he was blushing a little.

”Fabian —” he started, but got interrupted immediately by Fabian going, ”Were you jealous?”

Riz furrowed his brow, genuinely lost now. ”What?”

Fabian pulled out his crystal, and showed him the group chat, and scrolled up to Riz’s, ”WHAT????”

Riz didn’t like being confronted by his own mistakes on a good day, but this was a definitive ouch moment, going straight into the category of events that would randomly keep you up at night because they're so embarrassing to even think about. 

”Did me saying I’m going to prom with Flaladriel make you jealous The Ball?” Fabian asked again, and gods, he was smirking again, like he already knew the answer, even though Riz himself didn’t know the answer. It annoyed him, that Fabian had decided on a supposed answer he didn’t come up with himself, and he couldn’t hide it.

”I don’t know!” He hissed, then immediately softened up when Fabian’s smirk died on his lips. He looked a bit hurt, and Riz felt he’d snapped at the wrong moment.

”I don’t know, Fabian,” he repeated himself, this time more meekly, and the sincerity in Fabian’s eye made him want to say something, anything. Explain himself. ”I mean… I don’t know what this feeling is? I don’t like it, it sucks. I just… I dunno. This is dumb.”

Fabian shook his head though, and said, ”No, I want to hear this, explain everything to me like, like this is one of your cases or something!”

He said it like it was the greatest idea ever, something that would surely make Riz be able to explain everything, and yeah, it kinda was, but Riz wasn’t about to tell Fabian how he’d thought that he had a crush on him out of all people, and that’s why he guessed he might’ve felt weird about him going to prom with someone? Oh no no _no_.

”I think you should explain yourself first,” Riz countered, ”What’s all this? Why take me to a secluded spot in the park? Why do you even care if I’m jealous or not?”

Fabian looked at him with a blank expression.

”What, really?” He asked, ”I go first?”

Riz nodded. ”Only fair.”

Fabian closed his eye, and sighed deeply, muttering, "I suppose."

He let go of Riz's arm, and leaned forward, as if he was trying to catch his breath, like he was gathering strength or courage or something. Then he suddenly sprang up from his seat, yelling in a nearly terrifying manner, like this was a bloodrush game and he was getting amped up, and when he finally looked Riz's way, he felt it again. This was gonna be —

"Riz Gukgak, I am utterly besotted with you.”

A love confession. Riz couldn't help himself. 

"I knew it!" He exclaimed in triumph, bubbling with delight because his intuition hadn't been wrong after all, and because Fabian actually, for real liked him. Not that you'd notice it now. Fabian looked decidedly less impressed by his outburst, and he tsk'ed, looking down at him, not a single twinkle of romance in his eye, and he reached for the strings of Riz’s hoodie, pulling at them.

"Congratulations," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "I'm glad you think the appropriate reaction to my deep romantic feelings for you is gloating."

He tugged so hard Riz felt the hood tighten, and he looked up at Fabian, trying to figure out what the big deal was. And then he had to scrunch up his face in an attempt to not to laugh.

"Are you pouting?" He asked, and Fabian's cheeks puffed up even more.

"What of it? Am I not allowed a bout of pouting when my grand romantic gesture goes south like this?" He asked in return, but let go of the hoodie with a final tug and plopped down next to Riz again, this time thigh to thigh, hands deep in his pockets in an uncharacteristic slouch.

"I guess I'm just excited," Riz confessed himself, looking at his feet dangling from the bench that was too big for him, and Fabian snapped into attention next to him.

"What does that mean?" He asked. _Fuck if I know_ , Riz wanted to answer, but held his tongue.

"Uh, give me a second," he opted to say instead, "Cause I need to think."

Fabian just nodded, and so they sat in silence for a solid five minutes while Riz raked his brain for answers.

"Okay," he said when everything was finally as clear as he thought it'd get, "I guess I was like, jealous in some capacity? Like, I dunno," he grabbed at his sleeves as some sort of nervous energy kept building at the pit of his stomach as he spoke. "I thought you liked me, so I guess I got conceited. Like wow, I'm your favorite person, and I liked that thought a lot."

"Well, obviously you are," Fabian interrupted, and it caught Riz so off guard he gawked, and felt his chest suddenly get filled with his rapidly beating heart, nothing else, no room for small things like oxygen and breathing, and he actually flushed.

"Don't," he said, swallowing hard, but he didn't know what he wanted Fabian not to do. "Let me finish."

He cleared his throat, but that did little to help his strangled voice. "Anyway, so I dunno, I thought our relationship would change in some significant way and I kinda just, freaked out, you know?"

He dared to look at Fabian, who was... Grinning? What? Why?

"I truly do not, and you should tell me more about your ambiguous feelings towards me," he said, grinning ear to ear like this was somehow a good thing, and he removed his hands from his pockets, leaning his chin against them and making intense eye-contact with Riz, who’s eyebrows just shot up towards the darkening sky.

"Great that my confusion is so captivating,” he quipped, rolling his eyes, but still he continued, ”I guess what I can for sure say is that I really like you liking me.”

When the words left his mouth, he just completely flushed, he wanted to bite at something, like the wood of the bench, just so he wouldn’t have to think about what he’d said just now.

Fabian was quiet, like he was absorbing the content of his words one by one, and then he asked, ”But do you like me?” And when Riz was about to automatically tell him yes, of course, he added, ”In the romantic sense,” and Riz shut his mouth, and thought about what he’d say next.

”I mean, I like things about us, like the, you know,” he started, but got super embarrassed, but he couldn’t stop now, ”I guess intimacy and closeness we have but I don’t know if that’s like, romantic? I don’t know what romantic even _is_ for me.”

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, and continued, ”I guess I felt that was threatened, and like, you wouldn’t be exclusive to me anymore?”

Saying all of this was going to kill him, as was the fact that Fabian didn’t respond. He just pulled out his crystal, and started dialing a number.

”Wha… What are you doing?” Riz asked, having no idea what was going on again.

”If you want exclusivity, I’ll give you exclusivity,” Fabian said as only he could say, pompously and with meaning, and then the person he was calling picked up.

”Yeah, Flaladriel?” He started, and Riz immediately knew what was going to happen. He tried to grab at the crystal, because this was so not the time, but Fabian just stood up, and held Riz down with his other hand, and man was he strong and tall and his arm was long, Riz couldn’t even reach his torso like this, so he focused on trying to remove the hand from his head and push forward at the same time, to no avail.

”Yeah, we’re not going to the prom together. It’s definitely you, and not me, bye,” he said, finishing the call without even listening to what else she had to say, and Riz was mortified. If she knew it was due to him there’d be hell to pay for sure…

”Why in fuck would you do that?” Riz hissed through his teeth and just about threw away the offending hand from his head as Fabian pocketed his crystal.

”To show you I’m only yours, of course,” Fabian said, like he was commenting on the weather or something as normal as that. Riz spluttered, because why did Fabian insist on making enemies, always and everyday? Then what he said sunk in, and Riz looked up at Fabian, who was looking away but definitely, without a doubt blushing, and so was he, because even his ears burned with the familiar heat that came from embarrassment.

”Wow, Fabian,” he said, because what else could he do but say that and hide his face, trying to seem like he was fixing his hat. Fabian sat next to him again, and how was any of this real again? How was this his life?

"From what I gather, this is the point during which we're supposed to renegotiate the terms of our relationship," Fabian said, making things more and more unreal with each passing word, ”Because I feel like what you and I want from each isn’t too dissimilar.”

”You think we should be a couple?” Riz asked, removing his hands from his hat and looking up at Fabian again. ”But I’m not even sure if I want to do stuff you do when you date, like even kiss or, or you know, do _stuff_!”

He motioned wildly with his hands, hoping that somehow they’d imply what _stuff_ was, which was, of course, sex, but he didn’t want to mention it out loud now.

”So?” Fabian said, shrugging, ”You do want exclusivity and intimacy, two very important parts of a relationship,” he continued, ”And to be honest, that’s what I want from you too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there hasn’t been a day when I haven’t thought about kissing you senseless since I realized I wanted to kiss you, but I can compromise if it means I we get to hang out together and I can lay in your lap while you run your claws through my hair... Or something like that. I haven't thought about this a lot.”

Riz was flabbergasted, and kind of touched? He just stared at Fabian, mouth hanging open. And, like, he didn’t hate that idea. He was surprised he didn’t hate any of this, even though somehow it just felt like, he didn’t know, like a too perfect deal.

”Isn’t it unfair for you, though?” He asked, and when Fabian just looked quizzical he elaborated, ”Well, since you’re not ace like me? Like, this is going by my terms now only.”

Fabian pondered for a hot second, and then said, ”I mean, if we could try out kissing, I’d be thrilled, I’m not going to lie.”

He chuckled, and Riz was hit by a sudden feeling of dread mixed with giddy excitement, because this definitely sounded like they were about to start dating now. How was this his life? He kind of affectionately hit Fabian with his shoulder, but decided in the spur of the moment to just, lean into him and not bounce off. It felt weird, to go for something like this instead of immediately pulling away when they got too close, like they often did. 

He remembered one night at Fabian’s place in particular. It was very late and a school night to boot, and he was supposed to not stay over but he was staying over because they’d played video games for too long. They both slept on the double king sized bed, not like it was that abnormal or anything, but he couldn’t sleep because he’d felt this magnetism, like some part of them had to touch, but it never did, not even an accidental swish of tail or anything.

That tension that had been building up for years had snapped the moment his head hit Fabian’s bicep, because they were allowed to touch from now on, if they dated. 

”I mean, we can try this dating thing out,” Riz found himself saying, and when Fabian tensed he continued, ”But kissing try-outs come sometime in the future, okay?”

”Yeah, okay,” he said, and in a very smooth manner he slid his hand over Riz’s, and squeezed it, and didn’t let go. It was tender, and they watched the river that ran through the dark Elmville in a silence that felt comfortable now, instead of weird and oppressive.

Then his crystal vibrated in his pocket.

”It’s probably the others,” said, straightened up and awkwardly dug at the crystal out of his pocket, because Fabian wasn’t letting go of his hand.

”Can’t be, I messaged them saying that we’d take a while to sort stuff out and to not disturb us,” Fabian replied, and Riz stopped trying to get his crystal.

”That’s funny, because I saw no such message in the group chat when you scrolled through it just now,” Riz pondered out loud slowly, suddenly in full conspiracy mode. Fabian shrugged again.

”It’s in the chat I made for me to complain about my romantic woes,” he said, like it was the most normal thing in the world, ”Of course my romantic woe is not in it.”

But Riz was not listening properly, and he jumped off of the bench, wrenched his hand out Fabian’s hand and spun around to point an accusatory finger at him, shouting, ”Aha! I knew you and the others had your own chat! I’ve seen you send something there and both Adaine and Fig smiled! I knew it!”

”Ragh, Zelda and Tracker are there too, if it’s any consolation,” Fabian continued, deadpan.

”I knew it, and I was like ’no it’s cool, it’s fine that my friends have their own thing without me and’ —” And then what Fabian had said registered, and he lost his train of thought. He stopped his raving, and just kind of blinked.

”It’s about me?” He asked, carefully.

”Oh yes, where else would I gush about how adorable you are,” Fabian said, moving to full on lounge on the bench, eyeing Riz in a pointed manner. ”I could do it now, but I think I can just tell you now how adorable you are when your brain catches up to your mouth, Darling.”

Riz did not expect that either, and he scrunched up his mouth to stop himself from letting out a sound akin to squealing.

”What?” He asked, eyebrows raised. ”I was just being honest.”

Riz laughed nervously. ”Is this going to a thing?”

”Undoubtedly."

”And ’Darling’?” He asked, although he was kind of afraid to say it out loud, like he was invoking an unspoken curse.

”You don’t like it?” Fabian asked, cocking his head to the side, and Riz couldn’t really tell him now that it scared the shit out of him, not when he looked like that.

”Just, you know, you cannot say it in front of anyone else,” he murmured. Fabian pouted again, but he conceded with a ”Fine”, and that was that. Riz remembered his crystal, and the message turned out to be from his mom. Date night was over but she’d be coming home late. If Riz was interested in the movie ”Bloodrush and Sensibility” he was welcome to come to Gorthalax’s place. He quickly typed a ”no I’m good" text, and in the spur of the moment he added ”btw me and Fabian are dating now” and sent it before he could regret it.

”Who are you messaging Darling?” Fabian asked, probably because he’d been making complex expressions at movie night with Gorthalax and his mom, and then just wanting to tell his mom something she probably wanted to hear for once. Like hey, your son is normal after all, and you maybe don’t have to worry about him dying alone, even though that wasn’t his truth at all.

”I told my mom,” Riz replied, but he was already feeling guilty over it when Fabian looked openly shocked at that. ”Should I have waited?” He asked, biting his lip. Was he already messing things up?

Fabian shook his head, and reached for Riz, and it took him a second to realize it was his hand he wanted. Riz took Fabian’s hand into his own, and it was so much more warm than his, now that he’d been on his crystal. 

”I, well, no,” he said, ”I’m just surprised you’d tell anyone so quickly that’s all. I suppose I should tell my mother and Cathilda as well?”

”If you wanna?” He shrugged as well, not really knowing what they’d think about this. Then again, going my Fabian’s track record he probably hadn’t been exactly secretive about the the fact that he had a crush or anything. At least Cathilda knew of it, 100%, and Cathilda and him were already cool.

”I do. We can tell them in the morning over breakfast if you want to?” Fabian asked and that was another bloodrush ball to the gut.

”What?” Riz breathed out.

”Well, I don’t know, do you not want to stay over?” He asked, suddenly sounding self conscious, and just then Riz’s crystal vibrated. It was another text from his mom, saying, ”Sweetie that’s great! I love you and respect you, but sleepovers aren’t okay until we’ve talked about this properly. I’ll be home by 1 am, I expect you there too!”

”Huh. My mom says no,” Riz said, laughing a little and then showing the text to Fabian, who read it it with an expression of ”fair enough” and he nodded. This was the hardest parenting he’d gotten from her in quite some time, Riz realized, but it felt kinda right. It made him want to break the rule she’d just set up, but he knew better than to do that. He withdrew the crystal and pocketed it, and Fabian pulled him closer by his hand.

”Come warm me up,” he said coyly, and Riz did the first thing that came to his mind, which was to awkwardly wrap his arms around Fabian’s back. Fabian thought he could one up him, clearly, and pulled him up to the bench with him, so that Riz was very nearly on his lap, but on his knees on the bench, and he wrapped his arms around him as well, tucking his face into Riz’s neck, and boy, he sure was breathing in deep, like he was very unsubtly trying to get in a good sniff or two of Riz’s sent. He hoped that he didn’t smell, but that didn’t seem to matter to Fabian anyway.

Not much mattered, because this was warm and it felt right, but after a few moments Riz couldn’t help himself, and he broke the silence first. ”Should we still go eat ice cream with the others?”

Fabian lifted his head a little, probably so that he could even be heard, and asked, lips brushing against the thin skin of his neck with each word, ”Do you want to?”

It bloomed gooseflesh where it touched, and Riz answered truthfully. ”No, not really.”

”I’ll drop you off at your apartment before one, then,” Fabian replied, ”Wouldn’t want to catch the ire of Sklonda immediately.”

He chuckled against Riz’s throat, which made an involuntarily shiver run through the whole right side of his body Fabian was pressed against. He murmured ”You better not,” into Fabian’s ear in revenge, satisfied when he saw his neck prickle up as well.

And really, that was that. The rest of the night was spent on that very park bench, where Fabian ordered pizza in celebration, Riz took his literally first selfie ever, but he didn’t know if it counted since it was with Fabian making a peace sign in the corner, and they sent it to their friends with an accompanying message of ”Yes, we’re alive. Yes, we’re dating now.” Then Fabian took a better selfie of them together with his longer arms and set it as his background picture, and really? Riz felt great. When midnight struck he kind of wanted to defy his mom and stay in this bubble of Fabian-likes-me forever, but he knew better than to actually do it. The ride home was tired, and if you didn’t count the drunk people they drove past, it was even peaceful. 

It was 0:30 AM when they arrived in front of the Strongtower Luxury Apartments. Riz didn’t even make an attempt to get off. Apparently waking up at 4 am had actually done a number on him, who knew that that could happen. Besides, if he let go, he’d get cold, and he liked being warm like this.

”Darling, are you asleep?” He head Fabian ask, and push against him gently, and when he didn’t respond in any manner Fabian untangled his arms from around his chest with a chuckle of, ”Really now?”

That was enough to wake Riz up somewhat, and he groggily opened his eyes, and slid off of the Hangman, yawning all the way down.

Fabian also got up, and knelt down to hug Riz goodbye. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, not even trying to phrase it as a suggestion, which, fair he supposed. Riz wasn't going to say this out loud, but he expected a 100 times more needy Fabian from now on.

"Just message me after noon, I doubt I'll be up before that," he probably said. He might've just thought it too, because he had the distinct feeling he’d pressed his mouth against Fabian's shoulder in a kiss like motion, but that must've been his imagination.

The next he knew he'd reached his room, and he crashed on his bed, barely managing to take off his shoes before he completely lost consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, these are coming out fast, but gotta write while I still feel like it I guess! This time Riz gets to have the conversation I wished to have with my parents, you go Riz.
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos and the comment, I really appreciated them all!

Riz woke up to sunlight beaming through a gap in his curtains, to approximately two hundred messages on his crystal, most of them from the Bad Kids group chat (he hoped it wasn't the one Gilear had been added to out of pity), twenty of them from Fabian. Looking at his alarm clock he discovered that it was, in fact, noon. That explained why his stomach felt like it was trying to eat him from the inside. He’d also gotten more sleep tonight than he’d gotten almost all week, which was normal for him so he didn’t think too much about it. He got off of the bed, and realized that at some point in the night he'd taken his pants off, which was probably for the best, though he would've liked for his sleepy self not to have slept in his hoodie and the shirt he’d worn for more than 24 hours now.

He checked his messages as he took off his socks, going for Fabian first because he was allowed to prioritize now, something that sent a pleasant thrill through his brain. Besides, twenty messages were insane, okay, even from Fabian who didn’t seem to know that he didn’t have to push send between every single sentence or sometimes even word.

First he'd wished him good morning at seven. Riz for a second wondered why he’d be up at that hour after last night, but then remembered his insane training schedule and shuddered. The next message was him apologizing and hoping he didn't wake Riz up. Then there was a bit in which he’d told his mom over breakfast, and she wanted him to join them for dinner next week which Fabian explained would be formal and elven, but still totally cool. Riz snorted at that, doubting how anything ”formal and elven” would fit in with ”cool”.

The next messages were just, Fabian suggesting they do various date stuff together, like go to the movies, get milkshakes, go on a walk, go work out, go eat dinner… It seemed like it was from a list from a magazine or something, but Riz wasn’t going to call him out on that, and he laughed, and messaged him ”We can’t do that all today” but sent ”Also good morning, just woke up” directly afterwards because he didn’t want to seem like he was just blowing Fabian off. The answer from Fabian came faster than Riz could’ve anticipated, ”Pick one, Darling”.

He was hyperaware that Darling was with a capital D, which was, _a lot_ , but maybe it was for the better, looking at his previous nickname he’d barely tolerated until he got so used to it it just turned into a thing. ”How did you sleep?” Popped up on his screen soon after, thankfully distracting him from the matter at hand.

”Like a log,” Riz answered, because it was the truth, then added, ”was so tired that I’m still wearing clothes from yesterday”.

”Send pic, now” was the immediately reply to that, and Riz nearly dropped his crystal.

”Why???????” He typed furiously.

”You probably look cute” Fabian told him, and Riz blushed and shrugged aggressively at the same time, even though there was no one there to see him do so. He still wasn’t super sure about the complimenting thing. It felt nice and awkward at the same time, and he looked down a the hoodie and his bare, pathetically hairy legs and wondered how he’d even get a good pic out of this.

Pros of sending Fabian his pic would be that it’s what Fabian wants, ergo it would make him happy, probably. Most likely. He didn’t know why not. Cons would be having to take a selfie of himself like this, and that Fabian’d probably whine if he didn’t comply.

The pros kind of did out-weight the cons on this one, and he sighed, and he sent out, ”Fine, a sec”, and got to work trying to angle the camera of his crystal just right. He didn’t want Fabian to see he had no pants on, but he also went by like, his intuition on this. Fabian had gotten excited when he told him about the clothes, so he wanted to see that, and him in the clothes because he’d specifically said that Riz probably looks cute. He set the angle as high as he could and put his hand in the hoodie’s pocket to stretch it out to hide his legs, and took a couple of pictures, and he guessed he looked okay in them? He was just a goblin with bedhead. He looked a bit thoughtful because his brow was furrowed due to having to take pics in general, but he supposed it was on brand. He wondered if he’d ever end up handsome like his dad, but that was probably just wishful thinking, being that he was almost an adult. He kinda looked more like his mom if he really thought about it —

Aaand he should just send the pic and not over-analyze his looks, shouldn’t he? 

He picked the one he liked slightly better and there, sent. Now he never wanted to look at his crystal again. He should probably stop texting Fabian anyway, not just because he was nervous over the pic, but because he had to go eat breakfast or lunch or whatever they had in the fridge. He also had a those other messages to scroll though so that there was no funny business going on, like accusations of them passionately making out or something.

He changed into his night clothes, because he didn’t want his mom to think he was a complete slob who went to sleep in the same clothes he’d hung out the whole day in, and because he still had to shower so dirtying new clothes would not be ideal. He threw the crystal on his bed and exited his room, only to be immediately hit by the smell of… Cooking food?

”So, the sleeping little goblin awakens!” His mother yelled from the kitchen, and Riz walked over in utter confusion. There she was, with something boiling in the pot and something else frying on the pan and standing on a stool, cutting up carrots into the ugliest pieces Riz had ever seen.

”Mom, what is this…?” He asked carefully as he approached their kitchen island (which was also their only table in their apartment, but it was kind of big because they’d gotten a medium sized apartment way back to get more space for the same rent).

”Surely you know what cooking looks like?” She joked, ”I mean there’s a reason why we have all these pots and pans.”

She kept smiling at him, the crows feet around her eyes crinkling.

”I know what cooking is,” Riz retorted, annoyed, ”I just don’t know why.”

His mom stopped her clumsy chopping, and wiped her hands on the apron Riz didn’t even know they had, and leaned against the counter, and said, ”Today I want us to eat as a family and also have a chat as mother and son about things.”

”Things like Fabian?” Riz shot back immediately, but his mom was way too experienced to get flustered by straight questions.

”Specifically, yes. After that you’re free to go do whatever, but like, just… Give me this one thing, sweetie,” she said tenderly, and the look on her face could only be described as bittersweet, ”You’re growing up so fast I nearly can’t keep up.”

Riz could only muster a teenager’s shrug at that, because it felt weird to get confirmation that his mom, still one of the coolest people he knew, had great emotions and expectations towards him. And she then reached over the counter and ruffled his hair in retaliation. ”First you need to eat and shower though, cause this food’s not ready. There’s half my lunch bread from yesterday in the fridge if you want that for breakfast.”

Riz swatted her hand away, went, ”Yeah yeah,” and walked over to the fridge, devoured the egg sandwich in nearly one gulp and headed off to the shower, but not before grabbing a fresh set of clothes from his closet and checking his crystal again. More messages than before awaited him, how was that even possible?!

This time he was way too nervous to check on the six messages Fabian had managed to send in the, what, five minutes he’d been off of his crystal, so he turned to the group chat instead. Most of it was from the previous night, after they’d sent their selfie and dating announcement, lots of congratulations and messages containing the word finally, and a whole conversation which Fig revealed herself to be the mastermind behind the whole deal with Fabian getting a date for prom to see if Riz got jealous, because of course it was Fig who came up with the questionable relationship advice. Suddenly her inquisitiveness over his relationship to the prom (”I guess all of us who don’t have dates are just going together? Like me and Fabian — And like Adaine maybe? I haven’t asked yet but I assume that’s that?”) during dinner a couple of weeks ago made perfect sense. Yeah, he was gonna have a few words with Fabian about how this little detail that slipped his mention.

Eventually, when neither him nor Fabian replied any further, a couple of lewd comments were made like he was afraid of. ”It’s okay for young men to explore their love and sexual feelings for each other in private, and we shouldn’t pry. I think it’s beautiful."

Thanks, Kristen, literally not what happened Kristen. Anyway, Adaine had his back and actually told everyone to fuck off (okay, her words were ”not to meddle”), and from there it devolved into lazy conversations people were clearly having when they were going home their separate (or same) ways.

This morning was also along the same lines with lively chatter about how Gorgug woke up too fast, somehow, managing to actually hit a hole into the ceiling of their tree home with his head. Fabian eventually joined in (Riz did note that the timeline did indicate he’d first paid attention to him for a couple of hours before replying to anything in the group chat), but it was a conflicting experience, because he started off by virtually high-fiving Fig for her services but then telling people, truthfully, that they were taking things at their own pace.

Then it was breakfast talk, which just made him more hungry.

”What the fuck Fig?” Was the first message he sent to the chat. He hoped she would understand it wasn’t in reference to her tomato and avocado toast with hot sauce she’d bragged about a couple of hours ago. It was probably delicious, but her weird and creepy romantic advice was not.

”Riz, shower!” His mom reminded him, and he scrambled to get out of his room, but not before sending Fabian a text that said, ”Having lunch with mom ttyl” without checking what those five messages entailed. He saw some cryptic emojis, and he was gonna leave it at that, he was quite sure his heart couldn’t take any more adoring comments from Fabian, _if_ that was what was awaiting him. Maybe he just wanted to break up immediately because his ”selfie game was not on-point”.

He entered the bathroom, and quickly stripped and got into the shower, hoping that hot water coming down on him with as much pressure as the apartment would let it today would maybe be enough to get his mind off of things. This, of course, was a terrible miscalculation on his part, and his mind raced as he washed himself.

In an attempt not to think about his body and what Fabian saw when he looked at him, he shifted his thoughts to his mom. What was her deal anyway? He hardly thought dating someone at the age he was at was a reason for a family meeting, except, oh no, had she or Gorthalax proposed? That was too fast. Like, at least live together before marriage, you know? But not when Riz was still here. He liked Gorthalax (and Fig, even though he was cross with her for now) and all, but he also liked his time alone a lot, and with his mom it just worked. He’d definitely have to move out on his own, probably to his office for a while, and there was college to think about anyway. Not like he was about to live here for much longer anyway, and then his mom could do whatever she wanted. 

He was done washing off the last of the soap though, and couldn’t justify spending any more time in the shower and raking up the water bill. He got out and dried off, but couldn’t help himself in the end. Nope, he had to wipe the fog off of the mirror and scrutinize his looks.

All he saw was a scrawny, zero muscle goblin with tattoos he didn’t thankfully hate anymore. He looked at his face, pimple free, at least the moment. He then stretched his very much chapped lips to look at his fangs, and promptly got out a toothbrush because he hadn’t had the chance to brush them yesterday, yuck. As he washed his teeth he thoughtfully looked himself in the eyes. He kinda liked the way he looked, like there was nothing wrong with him, not really, but was he ultimately datable? He didn’t know.

Truth be told, he could just straight up ask Fabian. Or could he? Was that allowed when you were dating someone? Riz guessed he found him cute, but what else? He’d wondered about this for a while now, and going straight to the source seemed to be the best thing to do here, if he did want answers.

He spat out the toothpaste, and resolved to get to the bottom of this mystery as well.

When he was done getting dressed, he stepped out into the rest of the apartment, and a very nostalgic smell hit him. It was spicy, like curry, but something else was there as well. It was a strong smell, overwhelming, but one he didn’t dislike, and for some reason he was reminded of his favorite plate growing up, this ridiculous plastic thing with a character he called ”Detective Cat” on it, and how he’d cried when it’d been misplaced when they moved here.

”Come set the table Riz, put the spoons with the larger plates,” his mom called, and he complied. There was no need to guess what the food was beforehand, seeing as he’d be eating it soon. Not everything had to be a mystery.

Still, when his mom set the pot on the table and put cornbread on both their plates he had to ask, ”Soooo, what are we eating?”

His mom looked puzzled at that.

”You don’t remember?” She asked while removing the lid, revealing a colorful dish with a thick, orange sauce, full of chunky vegetables and pieces of white meat that were probably chicken. ”This was your father’s favorite dish from his travels, when we had time to make food. It’s this spicy peanut butter stew, you used to love it when he made it. I doubt I can do it justice, but here we are! Help yourself!”

He wasn’t sure about all. In fact, he wasn’t sure about anything at all. All this talk of his dad made his paranoia just flare up, his idle shower thoughts suddenly real for sure and he really couldn’t stop himself from shouting, ”I don’t need a new dad!”

His mom nearly dropped her spoon, mouth agape. ”What?”

Riz felt heat reach all the way to his ears and he wished he had something to hide behind.

”Nothing, I mean, uh,” he tried to come up with an excuse but nothing sprang to mind. Why was he so lousy at this? ”I’m sorry,” was the best he could do.

”Sweetie, it’s fine. And full on truth,” his mom said, leaning in conspiratorially, ”I’m not planning on making anyone your new dad soon, don’t worry.”

Riz couldn’t help feeling a weight lift off of his shoulders, one he felt kinda guilty for.

”But, I have to say this. I loved Pok, but I’m my own person, and can’t be hung up on someone forever. My partner is mine to choose, and of course your opinion matters to me, but you decide in the end who’s family. I know you, and you’re a very private person, and no one has to be your dad if you don’t want them to be, I’ll make sure they know that,” she continued, and Riz felt like hard, adult boundaries were being set, and he nodded in understanding.

”Good. And a family can be a lot of things, like, say, an adventuring group,” she said and winked at him, ”But no matter what happens we’ll always have each other, okay? I love you, and you’ll always be my Riz and I’ll always be your mom,” she told him, and put her hand across the table.

Riz reached for it, and sincerely, truly meaning it said, ”I love you. You’re the coolest, mom.”

She rolled her eyes, but squeezed his hand anyway. ”The only thing cool here will be the food if we don’t eat soon.”

And Riz was starving, so he didn’t complain. He piled on food his plate without prejudice, and the first taste felt like an eruption on his tastebuds.

”Oh, I remember now,” Riz he said after swallowing the bite, ”It’s just been so long since I ate this I barely recognized the smell,” he said and gobbled more up, scooping it up with the bread like he remembered they used to do. ”It tastes just the same as dad used to make it.”

His mom also had a taste and went, ”Flatterer,” but she still smiled to herself.

They ate focusing on the food more than any conversation, and it was so filling and so good. He had to admit, Gorthalax was a good influence on his mom in this manner, because his mom hadn’t cooked for years while she was overworked on the force. He’d told them that one of his passions had always been cooking, even though he couldn’t eat himself. Fig was apparently his sous-chef who tasted everything, and they made one hell of a team, pun intended he supposed.

Once he was sufficiently stuffed he leaned back, sighing in a satisfied manner, ”I can’t eat a single bit more. I feel like I’m gonna crash again.”

”Me too,” his mom said, ”But we should still have the original heart to heart I had planned.”

The comfy fullness was immediately replaced with nervous energy, and Riz swallowed dryly.

”Uh, sure,” he said, not really knowing what to expect, except for embarrassment. He sat up straight, and hoped this’d be like the time he convinced his mom that he would be in charge of his sleeping schedule.

”So, you and Fabian, huh? For how long have you been together?” She asked. So an interrogation, then. Cool cool, he could deal with that.

”Since literally last night, mom,” he said, and she looked a bit taken aback.

”And here I was, thinking that you’d been sneaking off behind my back all this time.”

”Well, I just thought you should know as soon as possible. Like I see no point in hiding stuff like this,” Riz explained, shrugging, ”Not like we’re doing anything wrong.”

”No no sweetie, I didn’t mean anything like that,” she said, shaking her head, "I’m just happy you have someone in your life now. I thought you might be lonely, and you’d never shown any proper interest in girls —” She paused, ”Well, anyone. And I’m proud of you for telling me immediately.”

Riz nodded.

”However,” she began, and hoo boy, this was it, Riz could feel like this was the meat of what his mom wanted to get to, ”I think we need to discuss things like safe sex and what it means to be in a relationship as equals.”

And boom. Riz grimaced, and crossed his arms before himself in the universal sign of no, and said, ”Mom, I don’t think this is a prob —”

But she interrupted him, ”Nonsense! Here,” and grabbed something from the drawer. Much to Riz’s horror he realized it was a condom package.

”No mom, really I’m —”

”Riz, I know you think as a teen you think you’re impervious to everything, and being in love is great, but safe sex is important! I don’t know much about gay sex, but Gortha —”

”I’m asexual mom!” Riz shouted over her, and she stopped, thankfully, she just looked a bit confused, so he explained, ”It basically means I don’t feel attraction, and I’m personally not like, even interested in sex.”

Talking about sex around his mom felt so wrong, almost as wrong as hearing the word from her mouth. He cleared his throat, and wished he had more water, but alas, this’d have to do. ”Besides, we’re like, trying dating out. It’s complicated.”

His mom frowned, looking serious. ”I hope you’re dating him because you want to. Like, you’re not being coerced into anything.”

That actually hurt a little, like his mom thought so little of him that he could be pressured into everything or something.

”Mom, no! I’m sure this is a good thing, it’s just, not the thing everyone else does or is used to,” he explained, ”It’s like, uh,” he paused, collecting his thoughts, ”It’s like exclusivity.”

No, that was dumb, he could see his mom didn’t get it at all, so he tried again.

”It’s like friendship, but more intense. Because Fabian for sure likes me, a lot, in like a romantic way, but I also like him more than I’ve ever liked anyone else,” he continued, just pure stream of thought with all the information available. He felt like he was unravelling a case, except it was what had happened yesterday and his feelings as well. He felt his heart skip a beat when he said he liked Fabian as much as he did, because he’d never really said or admitted it before, not even yesterday. Maybe he’d be able to say it some day, but he’d used up his one for today for sure.

”It’s just us, doing our own thing,” he concluded. His mom looked less worried and more understanding now, as she was nodding along to what he’d said all the way through now.

”I think I somewhat get it now,” she carefully said, ”And I’m sorry if I seemed too strict or something. Of course you don’t have to be like everyone else, I just don’t want to see you get hurt because of it.”

Riz nodded too. ”I understand, but that’s my choice to make.”

Hard adult boundaries.

His mom smiled a little, and then, conceded, ”It’s okay. I trust you, sweetie. Now come here for a hug.”

And he got up, and hugged his still sitting mom.

”Now, did you have something to do today, or..?” She asked, and Riz shrugged.

”I’m sixty percent sure that if I don’t answer Fabian’s messages soon he’ll be waiting below on the Hangman soon,” he joked, and pulled away from the hug. Not even Fabian would do that, but he really did need to decide what they’d do today, he guessed.

”Wash the dishes and put away the food before you leave then, because I have a study session in,” she looked at her watch, ”Forty minutes across the town, so I should get going.”

Oh right, his mom was going to school too at the moment. Weird.

”Cool. I’ll… Probably see you in the evening?” He asked, but she didn’t look too sure about that.

”Let’s text about it.”

Either she had a date or she was confident enough in the fact that he was dooming Fabian into a sexless relationship that she just didn’t think she needed to worry anymore. She got her stuff (put the condoms away too thankfully) and gave him one last hug at the door after getting dressed, and when they’d said their goodbyes and the door closed Riz rushed to his room and dove for the bed where the crystal lay.

Five more unread messages from Fabian. Oh shiiit.

First it was the response to the selfie, ”you”, ”are”, ”so”, ”hot”, all separately of course, and one message with ”shit *cute (am I allowed to call you hot?)” then ”whatever” with like, twenty emojis that just said 100. Apparently he’d liked it, then. Hot was up for debate, but he didn’t see any real harm in it, but it did feel unreal so he had to try it out, see if the word fit he supposed.

Then came the more recent messages, after he’d told him he was going to eat. ”I want to see you now”, ”Darling”, ”Answer asap”, and then he was shocked to read ”on my way”, and ”waiting outside hope you see this soon”. Last message sent like, five minutes ago.

Just then the doorbell rang, and Riz could already guess where this was going. He went to open the door, and behind it stood Fabian, smiling radiantly, and he let himself in, and Riz closed the door behind him, feeling anxiety and excitement bubble inside himself all at the same time when he watched Fabian spin around to face him.

”Sklonda saw me outside and told me to come up,” he said, ”Told me to take care of you and that we had to wash the dishes before we did anything else.”

They stood there awkwardly, Fabian in his white sneakers and low-cut grey sweater with a tank top underneath, and Riz barefoot in a t-shirt he now realized was his dad’s old shirt that now fit him. Neither of them knew what to do, apparently, and somehow that felt kind of reassuring.

”Have you ever washed dishes by hand before?” Riz asked. Fabian shook his head, but grinned, and offered Riz his hand. Lots of handholding today, Riz thought, but still took it, and it was cold from the spring air.

”Never,” he said, like that was something to be proud of, ”But for you, Darling, anything goes.”

And so Riz got Fabian his mom’s apron because no way was this sauce getting on that expensive sweater without ruining it forever, and they washed the dishes together, and Riz felt all of his feelings mix together into one.

He was just, in one word, content.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, phew, write write write. Probably have like, one more of these in me! This one is just flirty fluff. 
> 
> Again, this has not been super edited, so sorry for any weirdness. 
> 
> Also, thanks for all the comments and kudos. Really warms my heart.

Weeks ran by, and Riz and Fabian were still together even though bets at school said they wouldn’t’ve lasted past the initial one. Though happy with the arrangement, Riz still hadn’t asked Fabian what he liked about him. It was definitely because he always chickened out halfway through, but on this night of video games and cuddles Riz felt braver than ever, emboldened by their developing relationship and trust for each other. That or it might’ve been the elven sparkling wine he’d ventured to taste during dinner at the Seacaster Manor. He guessed it’d remain a mystery forever.

”Hey,” he poked at Fabian with his elbow to get his attention. It was an easy task, because right now he was nestled between Fabian’s legs and leaning against his chest, where Riz was teaching him to play his favorite video games. Fabian, in the middle of driving over a cliff in the racing adventure platformer ”Wagons of Fury”, went ”ow” very dramatically and dropped his controller like someone’d shot him, and then finally pointed at the screen with both hands.

”Look Darling, we have perished forever due to your foul treachery!” He exclaimed theatrically, the huge screen in his room flashing with pixelated explosions. It was technically true, because they’d been at their last life, but mostly due to the fact that Fabian sucked at this particular game. He was about to point this out, but he was interrupted when Fabian suddenly grabbed his sides and started to tickle him, making him gasp in shock instead.

”Face your punishment, sweetest of traitors,” Fabian said with delight that seriously veered on sadism, and even though Riz was nimble it was really hard to try to escape a sudden tickle attack when you were basically stuck between your aggressor’s legs from the get go. All Riz could do was laugh, try to breathe, and writhe. It was an existence that was half agony, half adrenaline.

”I give, have mercy,” he tried to plead in between it all, but to no avail. No, he was tickled until he was a gibbering mess, with tears coming out of his eyes, and he was just gasping for air, not even laughing with sound anymore. Only then did Fabian stop, only to hug him tight with both his arms and his legs, so that it was like he was in a full body lock, except this one was at least a bit comforting as he tried to even his breathing. The strangely melancholic and bittersweet ”game over” theme could be heard now that no one was howling with laughter, and it set a very odd sort of mood for the room, like something was about to happen, but Riz didn’t know what.

”That was an unjust use of force,” he said when he was finally able to speak, still drawing shaky breaths, limply wiping at his eyes. ”I’ll have to bring this up with your superior.”

Fabian barked out a laugh.

”You’re out of luck my dear, because I have no superior as the notorious pirate captain of my own ship,” he said bombastically, and nuzzled Riz’s neck for a solid five seconds before he realized what he was doing and stopped. It left the skin he’d touched different, pickling in the most pleasant and addicting manner.

”No, that’s okay,” Riz found himself saying, ”I kinda like how it feels.”

He blamed the minimal alcohol he’d had for loosening his tongue. Then again, he weighed like, next to nothing, so any mind altering substance did a number on him, he’d learned that the hard way and felt like he’d keep on learning it in the future.

”Oh,” Fabian went, and Riz had to crane his neck to see what expression he had on, and oh indeed. It was kind of, well, kind of obvious that he seemed a bit horny? It sent a jolt of shock through Riz’s body, because it hadn’t been what he’d expected, and he whipped his head back to its original position, suddenly bashful. Still, he didn’t move away, and in his defense Fabian didn’t let go either, and they stayed like that until both of their breathing evened.

When it did, Riz turned around in Fabian’s arms, who’d probably loosened them in anticipation of Riz leaving or something. He didn't, and rose to his knees so that they were somewhat at eye level, and put his hands on Fabian's shoulders because he didn't know where else to put them. When he visibly jumped at the touch Riz got a thrill, like a small power trip, one he wholly deserved after what he just went through, and he wanted to tease Fabian more.

”Hey Fabian, I had a question for you before you literally assaulted me in a most cruel manner I’ve ever felt,” he joked, grinning with all his fangs showing, but when Fabian rolled his eyes his face fell and added, ”And I’ve died.”

Fabian did look a bit guilty at that, but still said in an all together smarmy manner, ”What can I say, I always aim to do one better, Darling, even over death.”

Riz snorted, shook his head, and felt like biting at Fabian's face, but as the designated bigger man he chose not to do so.

"Do you want to answer my question or not?" He asked instead.

"Depends on what it is," Fabian retorted, raising an elegant eyebrow, and Riz felt the blow from that logical take increase tenfold due to that.

"Touche," he admitted begrudgingly, and then, after smoothing out an annoying wrinkle on Fabian’s shirt he asked, ”Well, do you wanna hear it?”

He kind of hoped he’d say no. Then it wouldn’t be too late to back down.

”Of course!”

And there went his only chance to chicken out of this. His face flushed involuntarily, and he took a deep, still shaky breath, and asked the question that would for sure doom him for all eternity. ”What do you find so attractive about me?”

Fabian blinked once, twice, and then said, without an ounce of lie in his tone, ”I suppose ’everything’ won’t cut it.”

Riz still pouted, and curtly said, ”Be serious!”

”I am, Darling, I am!” Fabian exclaimed, looking fake hurt, ”It’s just that, it’s a broad question, is all,” he continued, and thought about his answer for a while, his one eye darting all over Riz in a way that made Riz feel like he was about to catch fire from the inside. That, or vomit from being too nervous.

”I suppose I first noticed the swagger you have to yourself when you dealt the finishing blow on Kalvaxus,” he said. ”I denied it for a long time, but I wanted to sweep you off your feet right there and then.”

”I have swagger?” Riz asked, weakly. Truthfully he couldn’t see it, as right now he just wanted to squirm and hide forever, but the part of him that delighted in all the attention he was getting from Fabian won over, so he just averted his gaze, focusing on one of his hands currently squeezing Fabian’s shoulder.

”You’re very confident, and have just the right amount of arrogance to yourself. I don’t know what else to call it,” Fabian confirmed with a shrug, ”Other than hot that is. Which you are as well. And dashing, as well as often adorable, like right now.”

Riz looked up at Fabian in alarm. ”Right now?” He repeated.

”Absolutely Darling,” Fabian confirmed, ”I love how you’re shorter than me but find ways to make me forget that, even though holding hands and walking looks weird,” Which was true, then they felt more like siblings than a couple or something, ”And I also love it when you blush, or bite your lip, or look at me from behind your eyelashes, that’s absolutely fetching.”

Riz giggled nervously, almost without being able to help himself, because this was all so unexpected. He was in flattery overdrive.

”Oh, I also like your laugh, and your voice in general,” Fabian said with a toothy smile, ”I could listen to you rant about anything for days, I could be like a conspiracy board you could talk to if you wanted one. What else…?”

”You can stop,” Riz murmured weakly, not knowing if he could take this anymore, but Fabian was clearly too much on a roll to pay attention to that, because he perked up as if remembering something.

”I adore your manly physique too, of course! ” He said, nodding to himself, all pleased. ”And your skills in combat. And your brains, and —”

Riz shoved both his hands on Fabian’s mouth, making him mumble whatever the last part was.

”That’s enough, thank you, ahahahaha!” He said with the fakest of fake laughs, and when when Fabian looked at him in pure confusion Riz removed his hands, embarrassed at his extreme reaction.

”Did I do something wrong?” He asked.

”Not _really_?” Riz said, but the way the short sentence evolved into a question as it left his mouth spoke volumes. ”I mean, I don’t know, I think it was just too much.”

Fabian cocked his head to the side. ”You didn’t like it?”

Riz could detect the hurt in his voice, and he furiously shook his head no.

”Not like that. I mean,” and he was embarrassed to admit it, ”I think I liked it too much. It was like someone was injecting some sort of happiness juice directly into my veins but way too fast and way too much at the same time.”

Fabian absorbed this information like a shark smelled blood to find its prey, and the look on his face was pure, unadulterated joy, but in the way that made children run away.

”So, a definite positive problem,” he said, in a voice that was too calm to match his expression, and he slid his hand into Riz’s, and laced their fingers together.

Riz watched him intently but couldn’t get a read on him, so he went, ”yeah sure” just to be on the safe side.

”My Darling, my sweetest of treasures,” Fabian said, voice dripping with honey, in a way that made Riz suspicious, but also blush profusely.

Maybe it was a bad idea to indulge Fabian when he was like this, but he still took the bait. ”Yeah Fabian?”

”What if I want to fill your head with nothing but things that’ll make youunable to think straight,” Fabian asked, leaning in so that Riz had to use all his core muscles to keep himself upright and not fall flat on his ass. The mood was playful, flirty and oddly threatening all at once, and something heavy was in the air between them, kinda like this new sort of tension, and Riz felt like he needed to show Fabian who actually had sharp teeth here.

”Oh yeah? Kinda like I’ve been doing to you without even knowing it ever since that fateful prom all those years ago?” Riz shot back, and while what he said would’ve been considered a sick burn by anyone, instead of backing off Fabian just grinned more madly, and then, tipped Riz over. Riz was caught completely off guard (again), and thought he was going to fall to the floor and grabbed onto Fabian’s collar, but he found that Fabian was keeping him up by the small of his back.

”I doubt that you could even reach one quarter of my obsession for you,” he whispered, husky and smooth. So he was changing the game? Cool, that was fine.

”I almost made a conspiracy board trying to figure out what was going on between us,” Riz hissed right back, upping the ante by bringing their foreheads together with a thud, ”I have the sketch somewhere in my room right at this moment.”

Fabian laughed, bleakly but quietly, and retorted, ”Oh yeah? Darling, I’ve been doing rounds around your office block in hopes you’d come out and I could pretend I'd coincidentally run into you so we could hang out."

"I got us friendship necklaces," Riz said, and at that Fabian actually broke character, and went from charming and dangerous swashbuckler to spoiled teenager in an instant. The magic of the moment was gone, and so was their ability to hold this highly uncomfortable position, and they collapsed onto the floor next to each other.

"Why don't I have it then?" He asked, and Riz couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing. "No, Riz, I hope that wasn't just a bit, I really want it."

Fabian shook him, trying to get him to stop laughing, but Riz was too far gone. He held his breath in an attempt to not laugh, but Fabian's determined look was too much, and he wheezed with laughter. Eventually Fabian just gave up and flopped next to him.

”I was supposed to, I just never got around to it." Riz said once he'd calmed down enough. He never got around to it of course, because he felt convinced that there'd be no way that Fabian would actually accept it. It wasn't the cheapest pair, but definitely below Fabian's class. "I’ll give it to you, it's just at home right now."

He turned his head to look at Fabian properly, who was just pouting, his hands crossed over his stomach. Riz rose to his elbows so he could face Fabian, and there was that feeling again. He studied Fabian's face, from the line of his hair to his brown eye paired with the sick ass eyepatch he had, scar peaking underneath, his soft looking dark skin he had to lotion, pouting lips and _oh_. _Oooooh._

He got it now.

"Should we kiss?” He asked, and continued, ”Not gonna lie, this feels like a kiss kinda situation.”

For a second he was afraid of rejection, because the request had come out of no where, but the way Fabian's expression melted was kind of wonderful, cheeks flushing and his lips parting in surprise, eye darting to Riz's lips and then just, looking him in the most hopeful manner.

"I don't know," he said, voice hoarse, "I want to kiss you so often it's really all a blur."

And Riz leaned down a little, but then he got so nervous he had to stop.

"I've, like never done this before," he admitted shakily, even though he wasn't sure why he had to say it like it was news. They both knew his history.

"It's okay," Fabian told him anyway, "At your own pace. We don't have to kiss now."

"But I kinda really want to,” Riz said, ”This feels right. I’m just so nervous I feel like puking.”

Fabian grimaced, glaring at him.

"Don't you dare," he said, cross, "Not on my face, my love for you has its limits."

Riz laughed a little, and then he leaned down again, until their noses were touching, and even though he'd been so disgusted before Fabian drew a shaky breath and closed his eye. Riz followed suit, also closing his eyes because it felt like the appropriate thing to do, and then he closed the distance between their mouths.

His first thought was that Fabian's lips were so much more soft that he'd ever imagined, completely plush and velvety smooth. And salty. Then he felt like he'd probably thought about this for too long and made it weird so he pulled away, but apparently not, since Fabian craned his neck so that the kiss would last just a tiny moment longer, and then he let Riz go.

They stared at each other for what felt like a full minute but was more like ten seconds, and then Riz collapsed next to Fabian. After a heartbeat Fabian very assertively took hold of Riz's hand, and asked, "Well, did I make it into the team coach?"

It sounded like a joke, like the concept, but Fabian also seemed nervous when he said it.

"What? Oh, oh!" Riz went, realizing it was a reference to what he'd said weeks ago, and cleared his throat. ”I mean, we’ll probably have to review your performance again."

Fabian shifted next to him, so that he was laying on his side. "Right now?" He asked, and Riz’s heart jumped to his throat.

”Uh, sure,” he barely managed to say before Fabian swooped down and kissed him, and already it was different from before. He actually moved his mouth against Riz’s, and he kind of tried to mimic that, earning a small chuckle into the kiss from Fabian. His lips felt solid now, and not just weird, barely real things, and Riz quickly learned to breathe through his nose, and then it was over again. Riz’s lips were left cold and wet, but everything else felt warm and light when Fabian hugged him.

”How about now?” Fabian asked, rubbing his back, ”Like, how do you even like kissing?”

”I mean, hmmmm. Gotta think about this, cause it’s kinda weird,” Riz admitted, ”But I definitely don’t hate it. It also feels kinda right, all things considered?”

Fabian sighed in relief, ”Oh good,” like he’d been expecting something different. He looked very happy with the answer he’d gotten, and it made Riz feel like he wanted to say more things that made him look like that, and that’s probably what Fabian’d felt just some time ago, huh.

”I uh, like you a lot, I hope you know that,” Riz croaked, because it felt right to say that now, even though it made his mouth run dry. He also really needed to drink water, he realized. Fabian chuckled and kind of , and tightened his arms around Riz.

”Darling, would you have kissed me otherwise?” He asked. When Riz looked decidedly unimpressed, he added, ”But I like you too, of course.”

”Good,” Riz said, and hugged Fabian back. ”I like that.”

”I like that you like that,” Fabian said, and Riz rolled his eyes, even though he was tucked away under Fabian’s chin so that he had no way of seeing that. It was the thought that counted in a good, sassy eye roll anyway. 

”What, really? Am I supposed to say I like that you like that I like that?”

”Maybe,” Fabian said, eye twinkling, ”Life’s an adventure.”

”So is getting something to drink from the kitchen,” Riz said, snorting at this lame conversation they were having, right after kissing for the first time. Lame, but good. When they eventually went to the kitchen for drinks and ice cream in the dead of night, he thought that wow, he could actually get used to being lame together like this.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter time! First completed project in years, can I get a hell yes?
> 
> Thanks to everyone who commented, left kudos and just enjoyed this fic! I had a great time writing this too.

”I can’t believe we’re doing this!” Riz tried to yell over the sounds of the revving of Hangman’s motor, and traffic, and well, elements like the wind whipping at their bodies like it was trying to throw them off of the motorcycle and into the lively morning traffic they were currently stuck in.

But, no matter how Riz pinched himself, they were doing this. The beach was getting closer and closer, and so was their new apartment and new schools and, well, new everything. Exciting, and also nerve-racking.

They’d kinda fallen into this whole ”moving in together into a new city for an adventuring college” plan, to be quite honest. Riz had gotten an offer for a full scholarship at Ashwing University, in a line definitely not designed to make spies out of rogues (he’d get to the bottom of this), and when he’d told Fabian this he’d suddenly and suspiciously gone from ”I will never attend college” to, ”hey, they have an interesting bardic college there I could check out”.

Then they were both holding their acceptance letters and looking at apartments, and his mom was making them go through ”how to live like an able-bodied adult” bootcamp which they had to do if they wanted to live together on their own. Fabian had protested first, saying that they could just hire a maid to come by daily or get an apartment next door for Cathilda, but that excuse hadn’t worked with Riz’s mom, and they had to learn how to cook and how to do chores. But hey, now they both knew not to mix reds with white laundry (Riz had to say he didn’t hate his new pink socks and his pink dress shirts, but he rather that didn’t happen in the future).

In Riz’s defense, he’d been working (as a P.I.), as well as adventuring and going to school at the same time as he was supposed to be learning these skills. He was used to like, taking out trash and maybe vacuuming, and he made a damn good cup of coffee, but that was pretty much it. Fabian had no excuse, but Cathilda helped him improve tremendously, even though he complained a lot. Apparently keeping a mansion was kind of a harrowing task, who would’ve thunk.

Anyway, they ended up not being complete trash at housekeeping. Their ”final exam” had been when they’d had the apartment to themselves for a week when him mom and Gorthalax went on a vacation together, and yeah, they aced it. Nothing blew up, they made food like three times and it was always edible, and it was nice to just, hang out and chill with Fabian when they were home together. It was something to look forward to. Domestic.

Of course Riz’d gotten tangled up in a case that week too, but it was also nice to hang out with Fabian as his sidekick, although he should probably keep it to himself he referred to Fabian as a sidekick. Not a cool thing to do to your boyfriend, even if it was true. It’d been his last case too. Seeing as he’d be actively studying from now on and in a city two hours from Elmville, Riz had to wrap up all the cases he had anyway and retire. For now. It was kinda sad, to pack up the office, but he knew he’d be back, in some form or another.

Yesterday’s send-off party for The Bad Kids had been awesome, but also had a sad undertone to it, because most of them were going their separate ways. But it wasn’t like they wouldn’t ever see each other or adventure again! Besides, all of them chatted daily, so it wasn’t like, that big a deal. They’d still all cried a lot at 3 am in Basrar’s parking lot when saying their goodbyes, and what had seemed like a sweet nostalgic thing to do had turned into a very bad idea today, after almost two hours of nodding off on the Hangman. At least it drove itself, so no traffic accidents were going to happen, but Riz sure as hell wasn't looking forward to unpacking today.

Well, they probably didn't need to unpack _that_ much because of the stupidly expensive wizard moving company Fabian’d gotten them. They would teleport there and levitate furniture and moving boxes to their designated places, and then the rest of their furniture Fabian had bought them new would arrive later that day, or at least Riz hoped they would. Sleeping on his old couch from the office on their first night in the apartment because the bed did not arrive in time would not be great.

He’d also gone through the trouble of finding them the apartment, scouring through endless lists before a couple of months ago he, with the help of Adaine and Fig from what Riz would gather, came across an apartment he deemed worthy to live in. His meager minimum requirements had been a garage spot for the Hangman, view of the sea, highest floor, two bathrooms, and at least one extra room to go with the bedroom for studying. Riz was a bit suspicious that maybe his mom had hinted to him that a conspiracy wall was inevitable, which, rude, he totally could resist the urge. Their time studying could be boring, with absolutely no cases to solve.

Anyway, Riz only paid for one fourth of the rent apartment, so it wasn’t like going to bankrupt him.Fabian had insisted that he be the one who pays for it all since he’s the one who wanted this crazy expensive place, but Riz wouldn’t let that happen, so paying for utility and some was the agreement they came to. A lot of the furniture was also stuff he’d gotten for his office to make it more comfortable for friends and potential customers, so he wasn’t a complete leech to Fabian’s seemingly endless wealth. And like, he’d liked the place a lot, when they came to check it out before deciding on renting it, so that was that. Fabian was used to a certain kind of life style so dorms were out of the question, and they only wanted to live together anyway, so it was all good.

”Hangman says we’re almost there!” Fabian yelled, snapping Riz out of his thoughts. They were already in the unfamiliar streets of their new city, and he’d been so out of it he hadn’t even realized. They drove past the university campus on their way to the apartment, the beach and a boulevard they’d visited the last time they were here, the store they’d pegged as the closest one to their apartment, and it all seemed so ordinary, like this wasn’t them taking a big step into the unknown future.

Then they came to a stop in front of the high-rise that was to be their new home, and wow Riz suddenly felt ten times more nervous than he had when he’d told his mom that he was only looking forward to this. He, embarrassingly enough, wished that she could’ve been here too, but them moving was on top of an exam, so she’d only come visit later this week.

Riz got off the bike first and removed his helmet, and man had it been stuffy with that thing on. He felt and probably looked like a sweaty, stinky goblin. Fabian followed suit, but when he took his helmet off he just looked like he’d worked out or something. Fabian smiled at him, exhausted but so very happy, and said, ”Our first home together.”

Riz tried not to latch onto the word ”first”, failed, and stammered, ”Yeah,” grabbing Fabian’s hand giving it a little peck as a distraction, but he didn’t know for which one of them he meant it. However it was, it seemed to work because Fabian didn’t seem to pay attention to Riz’s nervous energy and Riz didn’t seem to mind it either, and after they put the Hangman into its new garage they took the elevator up to their apartment. Fabian had the keys at the ready, so he opened the door, and they entered a freshly cleaned, empty apartment, just like it was supposed to be. 

Riz had the rune they were supposed to place into the designated spot in the apartment for finalizing the move, and they called the moving company, who, after suggesting they get out of the apartment, could be heard completing the teleportation ritual from the other side of the line, and bam! Magic, and a wizard (with the hat and all, but in cargo pants with his beard tucked under the belt and a collared shirt that said, ”Moving is Magick” in a cheesy font) and all their stuff appeared in the apartment, almost exactly where they’d said it all should be.

Riz had to admit, this was super handy, but the fact that Fabian hadn’t told him the price spoke volumes. He had of course found out that at its cheapest this was 500 gold pieces, and this move definitely wasn’t the cheapest move. But, having stuff just be there was so, so easy, and it immediately felt more like a home.

When they were sure all their stuff was here they dismissed the wizard, and when he was gone in a poof of magic, they had the apartment all to themselves.

And it was theirs, and theirs alone. Riz looked up at Fabian who was also coincidentally looking at him, and he grinned in the cheesiest, happiest manner, because he truly couldn’t help himself. 

”Hey you, live in partner,” he said, and Fabian got a look of absolute delight on his face, chuckling like he’d just found the chest that wasn’t a mimic.

”Hello to you too, Darling,” he said in reply, and tenderly touched Riz’s cheek. ”What a coincidence to see you here, in our living room no less.”

”What can I say, I get the feeling we’ll be seeing each other around a lot more from now on,” Riz said, laughing a little at their dumb little exchange, but still nuzzling into Fabian’s hand and grabbing onto it with his own. To think that just some time ago he thought he’d never get along with anyone so well that he’d feel like living with them. It was nice, and they stayed like that for a good while before realizing that maybe they shouldn't stand around basking in their feelings for each other, and actually move in. Besides, the bed would be coming in approximately two hours, so they had to probably clear some space in the bedroom for that.

”You take the living room, I the bedroom?” Riz suggested.

”Agreed,” Fabian said, and they shared a small kiss, but when Riz was already walking away he added, ”But don’t touch my shoes Darling, I have an intricate system for them!”

They’d agreed that Fabian could only take ten pairs of shoes with him, to save space, and he’d taken it hard. Apparently it’d come as a shock to him that they didn’t have space for all his shoes he barely used.  
  
”Sure thing honey!” Riz yelled back with an unseen eye roll, and headed off into the bedroom. It was the room with the view to the sea like Fabian’d wanted, with an added tiny balcony you could maybe fit a chair for Riz on, but he might’ve had to hang his legs outside the railing to get comfy, so maybe it was just for wistfully staring into the horizon.

The room itself had built in cabinets for clothes, so he got to putting stuff up, but halfway through he got annoyed at the damn medium sized everything, and he had to get the kitchen ladder to get to the upper shelves. They’d probably need to get him a stool for every room, or maybe put up a bar for his clothes that was more than barely reachable, but just as his frustration was reaching its limit, he could hear music from the living room.

Curiosity won over his shitty job quickly, and he went over to the doorway to see that Fabian had used all this time to set up his stereo system, and he was jamming to some sweet tune on his own, looking like he was having the time of his life, and yeah, he was probably going to fit well into the bard classes here. He perked up when he saw Riz, and reached a hand out to him.

”Darling, come dance with me,” he requested, and Riz shook his hands no.

”You know I don’t dance,” he told Fabian.

”You danced with me during prom,” he retorted back, tone teasing, and he grabbed Riz’s wrists. Begrudgingly Riz let himself be moved in a less than enthusiastic dance, and he had a hard time looking at Fabian’s radiant face.

”How could I say no to my boyfriend who’d just been crowned Prom King?” He asked as Fabian puppeted him by his stiff arms.

”How could you say no to your boyfriend you just moved in with?” Fabian asked, and as the song changed into something more jaunty he leaned down and scooped Riz up, holding him by his waist so that his legs were just dangling uselessly, and stretching his arm out so that they were doing a queer sort of formal dance, and when he spun and spun Riz had to actually hold onto his arm so he wouldn’t fly away, even thought he was pretty sure Fabian was holding on tight, no matter how hard he was laughing.

”Fabian!” He yelled in mock outrage, which he couldn’t hold for long. The tension that’d kinda been with Riz ever since the ride here faded, with Fabian's good mood being infectious, and he laughed, ”Are you serious?”

”Darling,” Fabian said, and dipped him left, then right, leaving him leaning downwards so that Riz's legs were upright towards the ceiling, and against his mouth he asked, ”What else would I be?”

But Riz wasn’t going to be swayed (unless it was literally at this moment, of course).

”Utterly ridiculous?” He offered, leaning in for a kiss, but right at that moment Fabian pulled him up, and their noses hit instead of their lips making them both grunt, and after the pain blooming in his face had stopped Riz looked at Fabian, who had his eye tear up and half closed, and they both started giggling.

"Sorry," they both said at the same time, and started laughing properly, just nuzzling their faces together like a couple of dorks. Then the song changed again, this time into a piece that Riz actually recognized.

"Is this... Is this the game over theme from Wagons of Fury?" He asked carefully, and Fabian flushed.

"How could I not have the soundtrack to our first kiss on my playlist?" He admitted, and continued, "No matter how trash the actual game is. Besides, it's a waltz."

And as a demonstration Fabian waltzed all around the room with him, dodging moving boxes and furniture with precision that really seemed unlikely for a person with limited depth perception and one eye that was exclusively focused on the person he was holding, but as long as Riz wasn't getting his head bashed anywhere he was fine. Actually, he had to admit that this version of dancing where he did nothing was actually kind of nice. Everything was nice, except his stomach, which interrupted this special moment by growling.

”Huh,” he exclaimed, ”We didn’t eat lunch yet.”

”True,” Fabian said, and set Riz down. ”We have no food, we only teleported drinks here. Should we order something?”

”What else would you order during a move than pizza?”

And an hour later they were sprawled across the couch, tortured and suffering.

”The delivery people in Elmville always came to me very fast because they knew I tipped well,” Fabian moaned, ”This is literally the first time I’ve ever waited an hour for pizza,”

He turned around to lay on his stomach, almost hitting Riz’s face with his socked foot. They’d tried to get some moving done, they truly had, but it had all fallen apart when they both just lost all energy and will to even move due to hunger.

”I just want the bed to arrive,” Riz said, and buried himself deeper under the pillow he’d put on his lap, scrolling his crystal idly, not really even looking at what was in it.

”But we won’t perish without the bed. Without the pizza we’ll die of starvation,” Fabian argued.

”But with the bed we’d have the perfect place for dying,” Riz said, and dropped his crystal onto the pillow. ”Maybe this was a trap, by our enemies to finally off the dynamic duo of Riz and Fabian.”

Fabian shifted again, so that he was laying on his side, and he rested his arm on his hip, and he made weary eye contact with Riz, looking forlorn. ”Before I go, I want you to know that you are my lo—”

And the buzzer went off.

”I’ll go,” Fabian said and sprang up almost immediately, and went to let them in, mumbling, ”Better be the pizza…”

And even from this angle Riz could see that his ears were completely red, and he knew why. They didn’t really say the l-word. Not because they didn’t, you know, mean it, but because at least for Riz the moment had kinda passed, and well, it kind of felt awkward. He thought about it, thought about just saying it randomly, or dropping it into context like Fabian did. ”I love this and that about you,” was something he said a lot, and like, Riz got it.

To Fabian’s credit, he had straight up told him he loved him, one night when he was dropping Riz off to his office, and that was the moment he’d messed up, because what had Riz said in return? ”I know, thanks”. And he’d wanted to die. Just go to hell for his sins and be done with it, have Bill Seacaster decapitate him for hurting his darling boy and just, ugh. He couldn’t believe himself, and Fabian must've felt like he’d sucked at that moment too, because he’d never said it again.

Like, there shouldn’t be such a big problem. He told his mom he loved her like, at least many times a year. He, well, he felt such deep feelings for Fabian, things he’d never felt unless he was solving a big mystery. When he’d talked to others in romantic relationships about it, he’d basically gotten the advice of ”you just have to say it, and the block goes away”. Like maybe for you Fig, but Riz didn’t like his odds. What if he never got around to it and —

Open box of pizza under his nose, and oh right, the outside world existed. He took the box, and looked up at Fabian.

”Ready to gorge yourself Darling?” He asked, with a smile that ran dangerously close to a smirk.

”Thanks, I love you,” Riz said, promptly showing a slice of pizza into his mouth, and then he realized what he’d actually said. He looked up at Fabian in panic, and when he saw the utter slack jawed look of shock on his face he swallowed the piece nearly whole and went to correct himself, saying, ”I’d love _to_!”

He laughed nervously, like whoops silly me, and and focused on eating and mentally cursing himself out. Fabian just sat down next to him, he too laughing like it had just been a terrible mix up, but Riz knew he knew what Riz’d said. They kind of ate in silence, drinking soda and discussing what to do next now that they weren’t dying of low blood sugar. Fabian’d go to the bedroom to finish up unpacking the clothes, since for him the task would be easier, and Riz’d sort out the office since there were no high cupboards there.

This room felt like it was all his. It had his old desk and chair, his filing cabinets and the bean bag chair Kristen had gotten him for his last birthday. He got to the task of arranging it as he saw fit, and he tried his hardest not to think about what a fuck up or a boyfriend he was, and after a short while Fabian came to the doorway.

”I’m gonna head out and do some light shopping for food and such,” he told Riz, "Do you want anything?"

”I’ll come too!” Riz said immediately, ready to jump up and join Fabian, but he shook his head.

”Oh no Darling, I was thinking of going out on my own,” he said, but quickly added, ”I’ll be right back though!”

So he needed space. Cool cool _cool_. Hopefully not space to break up with Riz? No that was dumb, would he still call him Darling if he wanted to break up? He’d logic his way out of this train of thought if it was the last thing he’d do.

”That’s okay. I should stay, since the bed might come any minute now,” Riz said, hoping that’s why Fabian’d also wanted him to stay.

”That’s smart, I didn’t even think of that.”

Okay, apparently not.

”Have a safe trip. Bring your sword,” Riz told him, and Fabian waved him off, and yelled goodbye at the door. When he heard it shut, Riz just dove for his crystal. Who could help him? Gorgug was kinda good at apologies, but he felt like —

His crystal vibrated. Adaine was calling? How? He answered his phone with a confused, ”Hello?”

”Riz? Hi! How’s the new place?” She asked first.

”Oh yeah, it’s good. Gotta get some stools, that’s all, you know how it is,” he said.

”I don’t, but it’s good to hear that it’s otherwise good. And, pleasantries aside, I’m calling you with an agenda,” she told him.

And that got Riz’s hopes up. ”You saw the future and you’re here to tell me what to do to prevent Fabian from being mad at me forever?”

Riz got a bad feeling when Adaine was silent for a good moment before going, ”…What happened?”

Yup, him and his big mouth had done it again. She had not known anything, and he was a big dumb idiot.

”I uh, um…” And then he told the whole story, because what else could he do, and Adaine took it all in.

”To me it sounds like you should just tell him how you feel. Like all of it, anxieties and all,” she said after thinking about it Riz’s predicament for a hot second, and Riz sighed in frustration. 

”But I literally can’t!”

”Well, that sounds like a you problem then. That’s my best advice,” she told him, and Riz could literally hear her shrug as fabric shifted against her phone, and he felt bad for snapping at her.

”Thanks, Adaine, and sorry. It felt good to have someone listen to me.”

”It’s something I learned in therapy, you should try it out sometime!” She said cheerfully, and Riz rolled his eyes. He’d get to it, eventually. When he wasn’t so busy.

Anyway, they had something else to discuss anyway. ”What’d you call me about originally?”

”Oh, right! I got a call, and I’m supposed to attend a seer seminar there in a few weeks. Could I maybe crash at your place for one night?” She asked, and Riz’s eye glazed over. How anticlimactic. He’d kinda hoped for a rogue union of necromancers that had to be taken down, but whatever. It’d be fun to have her over even without life threatening situations.

”I’m pretty sure the answer is yes, but I’ll ask Fabian too.”

”Great! Oh but, one more thing,” she said, and ever over the phone Riz could feel the shift in the air, and Adaine’s voice over the line sounded a bit otherworldly. ”If Fabian’s in dire grief, use your mouth, or you shall not find relief.”

Riz felt breathless, and then the magic was gone, and Adaine said, completely normal, ”Okay, now I really need to go. We’ll see each other soon! And like, call me if you need anything. Nerd Squad has got each others backs, okay?”

Riz smiled. He really loved his friends.

”Nerd Squad,” He said and Adaine made a sound like a bomb going off, most likely an exploding fish bump, and Riz joined in, raising a fist for good measure too. ”Thanks, I really mean it. Bye Adaine.”

”Bye Riz! Say hi to Fabian from me! Love you both!”

When they hung up. Riz collapsed on to the beanbag, and ran a hand through his hair. He must’ve really fucked up if Adaine made a prophesy for him. But like, at least it was clear what he was supposed to do, and that was talk things through. He just needed to make his actual words come out with the meaning he wanted them to.

Riz heard the door opening and closing, and Fabian yelling out a greeting, and he sprang to action.

”Heya stranger,” he said in greeting, when he got to Fabian who was already unpacking the two grocery bags he had into the kitchen cupboards and fridge. ”What’d you get?”

”Oh, just some stuff for dinner and breakfast,” he said, not looking at Riz. ”Do you think we could manage pancakes tomorrow morning?”

”Probably,” Riz said, and climbed into a chair. ”Hey, about what happened just now, I —”

”So for dinner tonight, I know it’s a lot of carbs but I was thinking maybe pasta, pasta with some sauce? I didn’t know what we should make so I just got a whole bunch of stuff.”

”I uh,” Riz was caught completely off guard. ”Maybe the cheesy one Cathilda taught you to make? With chicken and bell peppers?”

Fabian nodded, both bags nearly empty. ”Oh, that one’s good.”

Then Riz saw it. He was actually unpacking yogurt into the fridge. Yogurt. His eyes widened, and he jumped at Fabian from across the table, causing him to almost drop the yogurt.

”Gaah, Riz!” He exclaimed, but held on tight to the offending little plastic cup. ”What’s the big deal?”

Riz tried to grab it, but Fabian dodged him. ”Seriously, Riz!”

And then Riz just lunged, and bit into the yogurt cup, and even thought he felt pain from the sharp plastic cutting him him he was sure he’d done the right thing. It burst in his mouth, the pineapple flavor mixed with fermented milk taking over his tastebuds, and yogurt dribbled down his chin, onto Fabian’s hand still holding the cup, and finally onto the floor. Riz let go, and at looked Fabian, desperate.

”Ihm so shory Ah huft thoo,” he said, but speaking was hard when you had cuts in your mouth and were trying to swallow the yogurt now mixed with blood, ”Buft dhound’t dfu _dis_.”

”Oh Darling, wha — There’s blood in the yogurt! Let me see, here,” Fabian had a moment of trying to sort out what to do first, but he dropped the cup, shook most of the yogurt out of his hand and grabbed Riz’s face, nudging him to open his mouth, which he did. Fabian looked into it with worry, and winced.

”Really, why would you do this to yourself,” and when Riz tried to reply Fabian lifted up his finger, ”Nope, don’t say it now, I’m gonna heal you first.”

And as he spoke Riz could feel Fabian’s magic wash over him, the healing words stitching the flesh of his mouth back together. Riz then wiped his mouth, and said, ”I’m sorry Fabian. I shouldn’t have hurt you before, and it made you stoop so low as to get yogurt!"

”Really now, it wasn’t that bad,” Fabian said.

”Yogurt, Fabian. Yogurt,” Riz said, pointing at the remains on the floor. ”That is such a Gilear move.”

Fabian winced again, this time for himself.

”Okay, yeah. But let bygones be bygones. Not like I’m perfect either,” he said with a shrug, and Riz grabbed his still yogurt covered hands.

”No! I don’t want to hurt you and then just move on, I, I,” and this was it. He couldn’t back don’t again, and so he finally said, ”I like you too much for that.”

Damn it! He actually snarled, and Fabian looked at him like he was losing it, and perhaps he was.

”That’s not it, that’s not what I meant! Like, I meant what I said, but what I want to say is that instead of liking you, I’m like, deeply romantically into you,” he said, frustrated that this was so hard, and Fabian raised an eyebrow.

”Like, in love with me?” He asked, and Riz nodded.

”Yeah!”

”But Darling, I know that,” he said, face softening up, but Riz was miserable.

”But I want to say it,” he told him, ”Like every time I almost do it I just, mess up. I just go into a panic and then the moment is gone and I can’t do the thing anymore.”

He was close to frustrated tears, he realized, but he continued, ”And me messing up hurts you too. I corrected myself after I finally said it. Like, who does that?”

”You did,” Fabian said.

”I did!” Riz repeated, ”And then you got yogurt!”

”Okay, let’s not latch onto the yogurt part that hard dear,” Fabian sighed. ”I admit, I got sad when you said you loved me and then it seemed like you thought it was a mistake. That really stung.”

”And I’m sorry,” Riz told him, and Fabian nodded.

”Darling, I forgive you. And like, for what it’s worth, I should say it more often too, I just feel like I’m too much for you sometimes, you know,” he said with a shrug. ”I guess love you like a captain loves his boat.”

Riz flushed at that for some reason, even though it was, by all accounts such a cheesy thing to say, and then he shook his head. ”No, I like that about you.”

And Fabian smiled. ”I like a lot of things about you too. We can like, practice saying ’I love you’ together. Here, repeat after me; I,” and Riz did, ”Love,” okay this wasn’t impossible, ”You.”

”I love you Riz,” Fabian said, as an example and because he meant it, and Riz took a deep breath.

”I’m, I do, I,” he stammered, and Fabian nodded.

”Go on, Darling,” he said, encouragingly, and Riz’s mouth was dry. He really did feel it though.

”I love you,” he croaked, looking Fabian straight in the eye, and it felt like a weight had lifted off of his shoulders. He finally did it. To Fabian’s face. And Fabian smiled, a truly happy smile, and pinched Riz’s cheeks.

”I could kiss you right now, but not with that mouth.”

Riz grinned toothily at Fabian, and chuckled. ”Oh yeah, I guess we’re pretty dirty. Sorry ’bout that.”

Fabian looked at him for a long moment, and then he leaned down, saying, ”No, never mind, you’re too cute and I’m too much in love with you, I have to do it.”

Riz laughed into the kiss, and it felt like everything had gone back to normal. Wait, maybe even better than that, because the doorbell rang, meaning they didn’t have to sleep on the couch.

Later that night, Riz couldn’t sleep in the way he usually couldn’t, partially due to the fact that his sleeping schedule was throughly fucked up, partially because he was going through the events of the day. He hugged Fabian and absentmindedly stroked his hair, and since Riz couldn’t sleep and Fabian was out of it, he decided to try it out again.

”I love you,” he whispered, ”I am in love with you, and you are my love.”

Fabian didn’t wake up, but he snorted in his sleep, and buried his head deeper into Riz’s chest, and yeah, this whole, ”being in love" thing? He had to admit, he’d had his doubts, but right now, he just wanted to bask in this love, and this feeling of certainty he had in himself and what he felt which was —

”Please go to sleep, love,” Fabian mumbled sleepily, wrapping one arm tightly around his waist, ”You’re thinking too loud.”

”Oops, sorry,” Riz whispered, and closed his eyes, and against all odds, promptly fell asleep.


End file.
